In the Dutch archaeological community, the Roman Villa of Maasbracht has become famous for the beautiful remains of murals that have survived to this day. Almost all of this material was found in the infill of the stone cellar, a veritable time capsule that has been excavated with much patience and care. The first field campaign in 1981 consisted of some four trial trenches excavated by members of the local archaeological society. These yielded amongst others foundation trenches of walls and floors of mortar and rubble from the Roman period. This was in 1982 cause for the State Service for Archaeological Research to join forces and to begin a full scale excavation covering 0.8 ha. The most important result was the uncovering of a stone main building of a Roman villa complex. After the excavations, the villa has been left on the shelf as one of the investigations of interest from Roman times with the prospect of one day being further analysed. The opportunity at last presented itself and this has resulted in the present volume. The names of the chapters are self-explanatory: settlement traces and structures, pottery, the building material, the wall painting fragments, animal remains and bone artefacts, glass and jet, the metalwork and of course a synthesis. The part of the book that appeals most to the imagination is of course the chapter on the wall paintings, beautifully illustrated with 58 colour figures.

Excavations on the site of this remarkable fort in northern Bulgaria (1996–2005) formed part of a long-term programme of excavation and intensive field survey, aimed at tracing the economic as well as physical changes which mark the transition from the Roman Empire to the Middle Ages, a programme which commenced with the excavation and full publication of the early Byzantine fortress/city of Nicopolis ad Istrum. The analysis of well-dated finds and their full publication provides a unique data-base for the late Roman period in the Balkans; they include metal-work, pottery (local and imported fine ware), glass, copper alloy finds, inscriptions and dipinti (on amphorae) as well as quantified environmental reports on animal, birds and fish with specialist reports on the archaeobotanical material, glass analysis and querns. The report also details the results of site-specific intensive survey, a new method developed for use in the rich farmland of the central Balkans. In addition, there is a tailed report on a most remarkable and well-preserved aqueduct which employed the largest siphon ever discovered in the Roman Empire. This publication will provide a substantial database of material and environmental finds, an invaluable resource for the region and for the Roman Empire: material invaluable for studies which seek to place the late Roman urban and military identity within its regional and extra-regional economic setting.

Compared to modern standard, the Roman army of the imperial era was surprisingly small. However, when assessed in terms of their various tasks, they by far outstrip modern armies – acting not only as an armed power of the state in external and internal conflicts, but also carrying out functions which nowadays are performed by police, local government, customs and tax authorities, as well as constructing roads, ships, and buildings.With this opulent volume, Thomas Fischer presents a comprehensive and unique exploration of the Roman military of the imperial era. With over 600 illustrations, the costumes, weapons and equipment of the Roman army are explored in detail using archaeological finds dating from the late Republic to Late Antiquity, and from all over the Roman Empire. The buildings and fortifications associated with the Roman army are also discussed. By comparing conflicts, border security, weaponry and artefacts, the development of the army through time is traced.This work is intended for experts as well as to readers with a general interest in Roman history. It is also a treasure-trove for re-enactment groups, as it puts many common perceptions of the weaponry, equipment and dress of the Roman army to the test.

Temples are the most prestigious buildings in the urban landscape of ancient Italy, emerging within a network of centres of the then-known Mediterranean world. Notwithstanding the fragmentary condition of the buildings’ remains, these monuments – and especially their richly decorated roofs – are crucial sources of information on the constitution of political, social and craft identities, acting as agents in displaying the meaning of images. The subject of this volume is thematic and includes material from the Eastern Mediterranean (including Greece and Turkey). Contributors discuss the network between patron elites and specialized craft communities that were responsible for the sophisticated terracotta decoration of temples in Italy between 600 and 100 BC, focusing on the mobility of craft people and craft traditions and techniques, asking how images, iconographies, practices and materials can be used to explain the organization of ancient production, distribution and consumption. Special attention has been given to relations with the Eastern Mediterranean (Greece and Anatolia). Investigating craft communities, workshop organizations and networks has never been thoroughly undertaken for this period and region, nor for this exceptionally rich category of materials, or for the craftspeople producing the architectural terracottas. Papers in this volume aim to improve our understanding of roof production and construction in this period, to reveal relationships between main production centres, and to study the possible influences of immigrant craftspeople.

Between 58 and 51 BC Julius Caesar conquered Gaul. He campaigned across much of present day France and the Low Countries, crossed the Rhine to Germany, and sailed the Channel to invade Britain. In doing this he achieved immense personal wealth and glory and the loyalty of a battle-hardened army of veterans. Caesar’s eventual return to Rome began with the crossing of the Rubicon which started a bloody civil war from which he emerged victorious and as dictator. Roman historians have little to say on the consequences of the war on the Iron Age communities of north-west Europe. Their story is told instead by archaeology and numismatics. Huge numbers were involved in the war, at a vast cost in people and wealth. In the aftermath, leaders sympathetic to Rome were installed and sometimes whole peoples were resettled. The diplomatic relations created at this time directly affected the eventual incorporation of these peoples into the Roman Empire. This book presents the latest archaeological research on the Battle for Gaul and its aftermath. Based on an acclaimed 2017 conference, it is the first Europe-wide overview and much of the research is published here in English for the first time. After an introduction to recent trends in historical studies, thematic studies and regional surveys analyse the archaeological and numismatic evidence from across north-west Europe. Comparative evidence for the Roman conquest of Spain is also examined, along with the fundamental role that the study of the Battle for Gaul played in shaping the development of Iron Age archaeology. Written by leading international experts, this book will be of interest to archaeologists, numismatists, ancient historians and military historians.

The 23 papers presented here are the product of the interdisciplinary exchange of ideas and approaches to the study of kitchen pottery between archaeologists, material scientists, historians and ethnoarchaeologists. They aim to set a vital but long-neglected category of evidence in its wider social, political and economic contexts. Structured around main themes concerning technical aspects of pottery production; cooking as socio-economic practice; and changing tastes, culinary identities and cross-cultural encounters, a range of social economic and technological models are discussed on the basis of insights gained from the study of kitchen pottery production, use and evolution. Much discussion and work in the last decade has focussed on technical and social aspects of coarse ware and in particular kitchen ware. The chapters in this volume contribute to this debate, moving kitchen pottery beyond the Binfordian ‘technomic’ category and embracing a wider view, linking processualism, ceramic-ecology, behavioural schools, and ethnoarchaeology to research on historical developments and cultural transformations covering a broad geographical area of the Mediterranean region and spanning a long chronological sequence.

Glass of the Roman World illustrates the arrival of new cultural systems, mechanisms of trade and an expanded economic base in the early 1st millennium AD which, in combination, allowed the further development of the existing glass industry. Glass became something which encompassed more than simply a novel and highly decorative material. Glass production grew and its consumption increased until it was assimilated into all levels of society, used for display and luxury items but equally for utilitarian containers, windows and even tools. These 18 papers by renowned international scholars include studies of glass from Europe and the Near East. The authors write on a variety of topics where their work is at the forefront of new approaches to the subject. They both extend and consolidate aspects of our understanding of how glass was produced, traded and used throughout the Empire and the wider world drawing on chronology, typology, patterns of distribution, and other methodologies, including the incorporation of new scientific methods. Though focusing on a single material the papers are firmly based in its archaeological context in the wider economy of the Roman world, and consider glass as part of a complex material culture controlled by the expansion and contraction of the Empire. The volume is presented in honour of Jenny Price, a foremost scholar of Roman glass.

Augustus and the Destruction of History explores the intense controversies over the meaning and profile of the past that accompanied the violent transformation of the Roman Republic into the Augustan principate. The ten case studies collected here analyse how different authors and agents (individual and collective) developed specific conceptions of history and articulated them in a wide variety of textual and visual media to position themselves within the emergent (and evolving) new Augustan normal. The chapters consider both hegemonic and subaltern endeavours to reconfigure Roman memoria and pay special attention to power and polemics, chaos, crisis and contingency – not least to challenge some long-standing habits of thought about Augustus and his principate and its representation in historiographical discourse, ancient and modern. Some of the most iconic texts and monuments from ancient Rome receive fresh discussion here, including the Forum Romanum and the Forum of Augustus, Virgil’s Aeneid and the Fasti Capitolini.

Butrint 6 describes the excavations carried out on the Vrina Plain by the Butrint Foundation from 2002–2007. Lying just to the south of the ancient port city of Butrint, these excavations have revealed a 1,300 year long story of a changing community that began in the 1st century AD, one which not only played its part in shaping the city of Butrint but also in how the city interacted and at times reacted to the changing political, economic and cultural situations occurring across the Mediterranean World over this period. Volume II discusses the finds from the Vrina Plain excavations. This volume provides an insight into how the Vrina Plain community lived, worked and ultimately died and includes chapters on the medieval and post-medieval ceramics from the excavations, analysis of the human and faunal remains, environmental evidence, Roman and Medieval coins, a detailed study of the small finds as well as a discussion of the glass including a report on a number of glass cakes, ingots of raw glass associated with glass working that were found during the excavations. The volume also reports on five lead seals dating from the late 9th to the 10th century, an uncommon find but one which when considered with the contemporary coins suggests that for 100 years the Vrina Plain was Butrint.

Egypt under the Romans (30 BCE–3rd century CE) was a period when local deserts experienced an unprecedented flurry of activity. In the Eastern Desert, a marked increase in desert traffic came from imperial prospecting/quarrying activities and caravans transporting wares to and from the Red Sea ports. In the Western Desert, resilient camels slowly became primary beasts of burden in desert travel, enabling caravaneers to lengthen daily marching distances across previously inhospitable dunes. Desert road archaeology has used satellite imaging, landscape studies and network analysis to plot desert trail networks with greater accuracy; however, it is often difficult to date roadside installations and thus assess how these networks evolved in scope and density in reaction to climatic, social and technological change.Roads in the Deserts of Roman Egypt examines evidence for desert roads in Roman Egypt and assesses Roman influence on the road density in two select desert areas: the central and southern section of the Eastern Desert and the central Marmarican Plateau and discusses geographical and social factors influencing road use in the period, demonstrating that Roman overseers of these lands adapted remarkably well to local desert conditions, improving roads and developing the trail network. Crucially, the author reconceptualises desert trails as linear corridor structures that follow expedient routes in the desert landscape, passing through at least two functional nodes attracting human traffic, be those water sources, farmlands, mines/quarries, trade hubs, military installations or actual settlements. The ‘route of least resistance’ across the desert varied from period to period according to the available road infrastructure and beasts of burden employed. Roman administration in Egypt not only increased the density of local desert ‘node’ networks, but also facilitated internodal connections with camel caravans and transformed the Sahara by establishing new, or embellishing existing, nodes, effectively funnelling desert traffic into discernible corridors.Significantly, not all desert areas of Egypt are equally suited for anthropogenic development, but almost all have been optimised in one way or another, with road installations built for added comfort and safety of travellers. Accordingly, the study of how Romans successfully adapted to desert travel is of wider significance to the study of deserts and ongoing expansion due to global warming.

Pantalica is a large limestone promontory in southeast Sicily known chiefly for a series of extensive cemeteries comprising thousands of chamber tombs cut out of the rock, dating mainly between the 13th and 7th centuries BCE. A UNESCO World Heritage site and nature reserve, renowned for archaeological remains in a spectacular natural setting, the site gives its name to the Late Bronze and Iron Age “Pantalica culture”, typical of southern Sicily in the period just before Greek colonization. At the time of Greek colonization in southern Sicily (8th c BCE), however, Pantalica was still one of the main indigenous centers of the region, sometimes likened to a chiefdom, dominating a sizeable territory and subsidiary settlements. The main excavations were undertaken by Paolo Orsi between 1895 and 1910 and mainly comprise information and relatively abundant finds of pottery and bronze artefacts from about 250 chamber tombs. The material is housed in the Archaeological Museum of Syracuse and is crucial for an understanding of local cultural traditions, burial practices and international contacts between Sicily and other areas (Italy, the eastern Mediterranean) in this period. The finds are only known from a small selection published by Orsi in two articles of 1895 and 1912. More than half were never published. The main aim of this volume is to provide a comprehensive study and illustrated catalogue of all the finds from the Pantalica tombs, along with new information from Orsi’s original excavation notebooks about their original context. In addition, the authors present the results of original research on different aspects of the evidence, including topography, funerary architecture (chamber tombs), funerary practices, ceramics, metals and other finds, and chronology. This volume will be an indispensable source of hitherto unpublished information of particular interest to scholars of Mediterranean later prehistory and connections between Greek colonists and native populations in the early historical period. Some new information is also provided about remains of the classical, Hellenistic, late antique and Medieval periods.

Starting from the issues of globalisation and recent studies about the mechanisms of absorption of cultures into the Roman Empire, this book focuses on the Near East, an area that has received much less attention than the Western part of the Roman empire in the context of the Romanisation debate. Cimadomo seeks to develop new understandings of imperialism and colonialism, highlighting the numerous and multiple cultural elements that existed in the eastern provinces and raising many questions, such as the bilingualism of ancient societies, the relationship between different cultures and the difficulty of using modern terminologies to explain ancient phenomena. The first focus lies on the area of Galilee and collecting all the evidence for reconstructing the history of the region. The theme of the ethnicity of the Galileans is very complex, as even the literary evidence of the first centuries BC and AD regarding Galilee doesn’t specify anything about their ethnic identities. The question of the Arabs, their origins and ethnicity is also raised, with a particular focus on the Itureans and the Nabateans. Alongside a complete analysis of the territories they occupied, Cimadomo explores the different artefacts: from the sculptures to the pottery, from the temples to the coins, a picture emerges of an area influenced by different cultures where the inhabitants were able to create their own culture, different from all other parts of the Roman empire. A chapter is devoted to the Decapolis, paying attention to the literary and architectural evidences of each city and their urban development in a little-studied period. An important feature that clearly emerges is the religious nature of the earlier settlements: most of them were probably sanctuaries during the Hellenistic time, and developed only after the coming of the Romans. It was during this development that theatres took a principal role, seemingly the first structures built in every city under Roman rule. It becomes clear that the problems of homogenization and differentiation were present even in the past. Local inhabitants challenged their identity, adapting and modifying foreign impulses, creating new societies and new ways of being Roman.

Butrint 6 describes the excavations carried out on the Vrina Plain by the Butrint Foundation from 2002–2007. Lying just to the south of the ancient port city of Butrint, these excavations have revealed a 1,300 year long story of a changing community that began in the 1st century AD, one which not only played its part in shaping the city of Butrint but also in how the city interacted and at times reacted to the changing political, economic and cultural situations occurring across the Mediterranean World over this period. Volume I discusses the results from the excavations, tracing the development of the area from an early Roman bridgehead suburb during the 1st and 2nd centuries AD to a major 3rd-century domus, one of the largest of its kind in the province of Epirus Vetus, its transformation into a new residential centre dominated by a Christian basilica in Late Antiquity, to becoming the home of a Byzantine archon during the 9th and 10th centuries when it was, in all but name, Butrint, and its subsequent uses following its abandonment due to the rising water table. This is followed by a description of the domus mosaics and a detailed examination of the basilica mosaics, analysing the imagery, meaning and context of this intricate and detailed pavement, together with discussions of the Vrina Plain and its place within the story of Butrint and the wider Mediterranean World during the Roman and Byzantine periods.

Greek Colonization in Local Context takes a fresh look at Greek colonies around Europe and Black Sea. The emphasis is on cultural interaction, transformation and the repercussions and local reactions to colonization in social, religious and cultural terms. Papers examine the archaeological evidence for cultural interaction in a series of case studies from locations around the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions, at a variety of scales. Contributors consider the effects of colonization on urban life and developments in cities and smaller settlements as well as in the rural landscapes surrounding and supporting them. This collection of new papers by leading scholars reveals fascinating details of the native response to the imposition of Greek rule and the indigenous input into early state development in the Mediterranean and adjacent regions.

Algeria is a large country, rich in visual remains of its long and complex history. The monuments of the Roman period are particularly impressive. This is partly because they are well-preserved, but also because the French, who colonised the region in the nineteenth century and ruled it until 1962, carried out extensive excavations and restorations. Algeria is not yet in the grip of the mass tourism which is engulfing better known destinations; now is therefore the time to explore its beautiful landscapes and rich cultural heritage. The Roman sites rank amongst the most impressive anywhere in the Mediterranean and represent an important aspect of the nation’s past. This guidebook will take you to all the sites, with a historical introduction, a detailed gazetteer of the principal museums and Roman sites and lavish provision of maps, plans and photographs.

Asia Minor is considered to have been a fairly prosperous region in Late Antiquity. It was rarely disturbed by external invasions and remained largely untouched by the continuous Roman-Persian conflict until very late in the period, was apparently well connected to the flourishing Mediterranean economy and, as the region closest to Constantinople, is assumed to have played an important part in the provisioning of the imperial capital and the imperial armies. When exactly this prosperity came to an end – the late sixth century, the early, middle or even later seventh century – remains a matter of debate. Likewise, the impact of factors such as the dust veil event of 536, the impact of the bubonic plague that made its first appearance in AD 541/542, the costs and consequences of Justinian’s wars, the Persian attacks of the early seventh century and, eventually the Arab incursions of around the middle of the seventh century, remains controversial. This volume explores a series of themes including the physical development of large and small settlements, their financial situation, and the proportion of public and private investment. Imperial, provincial, and local initiatives in city and countryside are compared and the main motivations examined, including civic or personal pride, military incentives and religious stimuli. The evidence presented will be used to form opinions on the impact of the plague on living circumstances in the sixth century and to evaluate the significance of the Justinianic period.